Nebula Awards Showcase 2012 by John Kessel, James Patrick Kelly Read Free Book Online

than anything I would have chosen for myself, an electric shade of indigo accented with a wide midnight black sash. “Trust us, it will be suitable,” Epiphany told me. Despite its bulk, it was as light as a breath of air.
     
    “All clothes here are light,” Epiphany told me. “Spider’s silk.”
     
    “Ah, I see” I said. “Synthetic spider silk. Strong and light; very practical.”
     
    “Synthetic?” Epiphany asked, and giggled. “No, not synthetic. It’s real.”
     
    “The silk is actually woven by spiders?”
     
    “No, the whole garment is.” At my puzzled look, she said, “Teams of spiders. They work together.”
     
    “Spiders.”
     
    “Well, they’re natural weavers, you know. And easy to transport.”
     
    I arrived at the banquet hall at the appointed time and found that the plasma-arc blue gown that Epiphany had selected for me was the most conservative dress there. There were perhaps thirty people present, but Leah was clearly the center. She seemed happy with the attention, more animated than I’d recalled seeing her before.
     
    “They’re treating you well?” I asked, when I’d finally made it through the crowd to her.
     
    “Oh, indeed.”
     
    I discovered I had nothing to say. I waited for her to ask about me, but she didn’t. “Where have they given you to stay?”
     
    “A habitat next section over,” she said. “Sector Carbon. It’s amazing—I’ve never seen so many birds.”
     
    “That’s the sector I’m in,” I said, “but they didn’t tell me where you were.”
     
    “Really? That’s odd.” She tapped up a map of the residential sector on a screen built into the diamond tabletop, and a three-dimensional image appeared to float inside the table. She rotated it and highlighted her habitat, and I realized that she was indeed adjacent, in a large habitat that was almost directly next to the complex I was staying in. “It’s a pretty amazing place. But mostly I’ve been here in the upcity. Have you talked to Carli much yet? He’s a very clever kid. Interested in everything—botany, physics, even engineering.”
     
    “Really?” I said. “I don’t think they’ll let me into the upcity.”
     
    “You’re kidding; I’m sure they’ll let you in. Hey—” she called over one of the guards. “Say, is there any reason Tinkerman can’t come up to the centrum?”
     
    “No, madam, if you want it, of course not.”
     
    “Great. See, no problem.”
     
    And then the waiters directed me to my place at the far end of the table.
     
    The table was a thick slab of diamond, the faceted edges collecting and refracting rainbows of color. The top was as smooth and slippery as a sheet of ice. Concealed inside were small computer screens so that any of the diners who wished could call up graphics or data as needed during a conversation. The table was both art and engineering, practical and beautiful at the same time.
     
    Carlos Fernando sat at the end of the table. He seemed awkward and out of place in a chair slightly too large for him. Leah sat at his right, and an older woman—perhaps his mother?—on his left. He was bouncing around in his chair, alternating between playing with the computer system in his table and sneaking glances over at Leah when he thought she wasn’t paying attention to him. If she looked in his direction, he would go still for a moment, and then his eyes would quickly dart away and he went back to staring at the graphics screen in front of him and fidgeting.
     
    The server brought a silver tray to Carlos Fernando. On it was something the size of a fist, hidden under a canopy of red silk. Carlos Fernando looked up, accepted it with a nod, and removed the cloth. There was a moment of silence as people looked over, curious. I strained to see it.
     
    It was a sparkling egg.
     
    The egg was cunningly wrought of diamond fibers of many colors, braided into intricate lacework resembling entwined Celtic knots. The twelve-year-old satrap